Gillispie's DUI charge doesn't bode well for future - Augusta GA Dui Lawyer

Gillispie's DUI charge doesn't bode well for future
Thursday, August 27, 2009

ESPN

Billy Gillispie still had a chance to get another head-coaching gig in 2010.

The lawsuit against Kentucky was sensational and certainly could be perceived as a negative when candidates were compared.

Suing your former employer isn't exactly going to put one candidate ahead of another when there is a close call for a job. But contractual rifts can occur, even if this one seemed to be a bit extreme: Kentucky fired him thinking it wouldn't have to pay his $6 million salary, but Gillispie felt he deserved the money even though he never formally signed his long-term contract and was basing his case on an internal memorandum.

Despite all that, he could've survived.

What likely has forced Gillispie to the assistant route before landing another job as a head coach was his arrest early Thursday morning on a charge of driving under the influence. Coaches who get fired find it incredibly difficult to be recycled in the next coaching carousel. Most have to become assistant coaches again to find their footing before proving themselves worthy of head-coaching positions again.

But Gillispie was coming from Kentucky, one of the premier jobs in the country. He was a proven success in his brief tenures at UTEP and Texas A&M, where he had done a marvelous job of turning each into a legit program. The Kentucky gig didn't go as well on the court in his second season in Lexington, but the recruiting wasn't the issue.

Let's remember that Gillispie beat out Florida's Billy Donovan and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski to get Patrick Patterson, who may well be the SEC Player of the Year this season for new Wildcats coach John Calipari. Gillispie is also the one who secured Daniel Orton, a big-time get who should flourish under Calipari this season.

But the DUI charge is the clincher for Gillispie. This is not the first time he has faced such a charge. He was arrested in 1999 on charges of driving while intoxicated and use of an improper lane in Tulsa, Okla. He pleaded guilty to reckless driving, and the other charges were dropped.

In 2003, when he was the head coach at UTEP, Gillispie was arrested again, this time on suspicion of drunken driving. The charges were later dropped because of a lack of evidence that his blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit.

The damage has been done with Thursday's arrest.

Continued at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4426963&name=katz_andy

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